Deemed University's plea seeking induction into AIU dismissed

Updated on: Saturday, November 05, 2011

The Madras High Court bench here has dismissed the petition of a deemed university seeking to direct Association of Indian Universities (AIU) to induct it as one of the members.

Justice K Chandru, while passing orders on a petition by Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education, said it had no statutory right to insist on membership of a private body like AIU.

The petition, filed on September 22, 2010, was itself not maintainable, leave alone the question of going into its merits or demerits, the judge said.

"AIU is neither the State nor an Instrumentality of the State as to come within purview of Article 12 of the Constitution. In the absence of any legal enforceable right on the part of the petitioner university, the petition is misconceived," the judge said.

AIU submitted it was an association of Vice-Chancellors of various Universities and a voluntary body, and there was no government control over functioning of its management.

The Delhi-based private body said the state HR department sometimes provides grant for specific projects undertaken by it, but that could not be cited as a reason to claim there was government control over it.

AIU said a University must have minimum five year of standing to be eligible to be an AIU member and that the petitioner university was denied membership because it did not conform to this norm.

However, students of the university have been allowed to participate in co-curricular activities, the AIU said.

Deemed University's plea seeking induction into AIU dismissed

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